About DASD

The Directorate of Arecanut and Spices Development was established on 1st April, 1966 at Calicut in Kerala as a subordinate office under Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India to look after the development of spices and arecanut at National level. This responsibility was earlier shouldered by Central Spices and Cashewnut Committee, which was abolished in 1965 consequent to the recommendations of Agricultural Research Review Team and the Indian Central Arecanut Committee which was dissolved in the same time.

Mandate

The Directorate of Arecanut and Spices Development, Calicut is responsible for development of spices, a large group of aromatic plants, betel vine and arecanut grown in the country at National Level.

The mandate of the Directorate is as follows.

Assessment of the developmental needs of the crops entrusted to it.

Formulation of Central Sector / Centrally Sponsored Schemes and implementation of the same either directly or through the State Governments, Agricultural Universities etc.

Monitoring the implementation of Central Sector / Centrally Sponsored Schemes and coordinating the development activities.

Rendering technical assistance to State Governments and other agencies on commodity development programmes.

Collection and compilation of statistics of area, production, export, import, prices etc. and dissemination of the same to the Central and tate Governments and other agencies.

Keeping liaison with the research institutes and extension agencies and acting as a two-way channel in the transfer of technology.

Undertaking the publicity and propaganda works relating to the commodities.

Assisting the Central and State Governments on all matters relating to the development of the commodities.

Presently the Directorate is responsible for coordinating and monitoring of development programmes on spices under National Horticulture Mission (NHM) launched during 2005-06 to promote holistic growth of the horticulture sector in the country, which are being implemented in 18 States.Besides, the Directorate is directly implementing the following programmes in association with State Agricultural Universities and ICAR Institutes to supplement the efforts of the States.

Production and Distribution of Planting Materials of Spices

Establishment of Nursery Centres for Spices and Aromatic Plants

Setting up of Seed Processing and Storage Infrastructure

Technology Dissemination through Frontline Demonstration

Organising National Seminars/Workshops/Training Programmes on Spices and Aromatic Plants.